On November 10, 2024, Barham posted a comment on an AU SJP Instagram post that was in opposition to a pro-Israel event on campus.
Barham wrote: "au continues to out do itself every time. hosting people who literally have blood on their hands to come talk about how to best colonize and ethnically cleanse a people and ensure the colonial regimes longevity. disgusting."
Barham's comment referred to an Instagram post where AU SJP was listed as a collaborator. The post was in opposition to a "Zionist conference" to be hosted at AU and the post was also captioned: "🚨🚨IOF AND WAR CRIMINALS OFF OUR CAMPUS🚨🚨."
“Israeli Occupation Forces,” or “IOF,” is a derogatory name for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used by anti-Israel activists to demonize Israel’s army.
The Instagram post referred to conference held at AU from November 10-11, 2024, titled: "Israel at 100: Scenarios for the Future of Israel in 2048." The conference included speakers Eugene Kandel, an Israeli economist and David Schenker , a Jewish-American diplomat.
On November 14, 2024, Barham commented on Instagram about the above conference: "this was hosted during the week of kindness too. is it kind to host war criminals on campus? asking for some friends!" This comment was in reference to another Instagram post by AU SJP about the same conference.
AU SJP's post described their "Study In For Gaza" event, whereby students affiliated with SJP attended the keynote session of the "Israel at 100" conference with signs taped to their laptops reading "THERE ARE NO UNIVERSITIES LEFT IN GAZA," "IOF OFF OUR CAMPUS," "100+ YEARS OF OCCUPATION, ETHNIC CLEANSING, APARTHEID, & GENOCIDE" and "END THE SIEGE ON GAZA NOW." AU SJP's stated aim was to ensure that the event would not be held "silently or comfortably."
Israel and Egypt implemented a UN-approved [pp. 39–41] joint blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2011 to stop Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets. Hamas went around the blockade by smuggling weaponry through tunnels under the Philadelphi corridor separating Gaza from Egypt.